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How should I put this; one thing you should not be is sad. What happens when a product is stable enough for the majority? That there are fewer and fewer problems? Did you expect the forum to be around? What will you post about? You yourself admitted that you haven't been there for a while. What if everybody was a casual visitor to a vacation home? What made you think that the forum will be there for twenty years (example only). They said they will meet you in IRC, which has been around for as long as the internet has been around. Think of the forum as an old living room; you see the furniture is either being dismantled or being moved to the newer living room facing the ocean. Why would one insist on waiting for coffee in that old living room when the homemaker would prefer that the two of you share coffee facing the ocean view?

So you haven't tried IRC. It's almost like refusing the homemaker's espresso. Why don't you give it a try? It is relay. "Hi, I'm Dan and I have a problem with indents using tabs; is there a way to increase the size of the tabs?" That is a sample of posting in IRC. Identify yourself using your nick e.g. greywiz so that when they reply later to a guy called greywiz your nick will beep or highlight to call your attention; someone has pinged you and would like to discuss tabs and your problem with them. oh, he has left, but your IRC window lets you reply to him and the whole chat window,Nice! I am out in the vineyard and will return in 5 minutes, anything you want me to add?

It is relay. Much like a forum, but with a free-for-all format. Somebody like another user might say "Greywiz what is your problem with tabs" or "What are you doing in the vineyard" It is totally up to you to pick which question you should answer first.

The person you chat with does not need to be there at that instant; but when he is, and knows a little of both fine wine and fine writing, then I guess you know what the fuss is about (this IRC thing that's as old as the dinosaurs--in internet time, that is.

If you want to, why not try the link to IRC up top. You can pick a channel other than #Bodhi, e.g. #ubuntu or #linuxlinux. Or say hi to the LO folks. Pick a good time that works for you, like after working outside, and ping somebody by using their nick. Hexchat or xchat all behave in a similar fashion. That highlighted nick is like the phone ringing with a pre-recorded message.

Two things can come out of this. One is you discover why it took you this long before using it. The second is, what a great time-waster this could turn out to be (don't forget the vineyard mate)

And throw in the person's nick so that he gets alerted at the other end, he could be at the far side of the globe, or just up the next hill.

Or you can still be excited by the news, instead of being sad. It is significant that LO is nearing stability. The only reason the forums and IRC remain is they want to let their users know that the project needs less support venues. Mailing lists and IRC are the classic old reliable stand-ins for projects on low-maintenance mode. Ever used a mailing list? If you are familiar with e-mail then you know how to use or to join a mailing list.

You can ignore IRC. But chat has been around long before LO, long before Linux, and has been the top choice for troubleshooting because you can be logged on almost 24/7 -- without being in front of your keyboard.

So register yourself on the mailing list, or on irc.freenode.net. To let yourself be included; be counted as one who has been using LO, yet has been struggling when it comes to printing the spreadsheets in landscape mode. How else would they know that a few minor annoyances are causing grief to someone still, if that person refuses to use the rooms available to them? I think the last thing you should feel is sad; on the other hand, after registering, send them a note of appreciation for having worked on LO for so long despite having real-life issues to deal with such as debt and taxes.

Let's take a look at Bodhi. i know IRC, and I also use the forum. The Bodhi team prefers the forum as the main lifeline for support questions. It is a good choice; I think you strongly agree. I still have an IRC nick, and like a tool in the garage, I need only use it when the car breaks down. Or I have a mechanic work on it. But if I choose NOT to post in the forum, they will never know that I have a problem with the password on beta. I have used my IRC nick to prove that as far as the Bodhi devs go, I can never beat them at trivia.